Popular after death
Do songs rise in the Top 2000 when the artist has died? For 57 of the 68 artists we could track, the songs rose on average in that year's edition.
For every artist who died between 1999 and 2025 we look at the songs that were in the list in the previous year's edition and in the edition of the year of death. Voting closes at the start of December: a death from 8 December onwards counts for the next edition. For comparison: across all songs and all editions, only 58 percent rise from one year to the next.
The biggest risers
Where it did not happen
For 11 artists the songs stayed the same or fell. These are often artists whose songs were already high in the list, or who were less well known to Dutch listeners.
| Artist | Deceased | Edition | Highest song in that edition | Position (previous year → edition) | Avg. rise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tol Hansse | 29 April 2002 | 2002 | Big City | 1429 → 1985 | −556 |
| Conny Vandenbos | 7 April 2002 | 2002 | Sjakie Van De Hoek | 1362 → 1803 | −441 |
| David Mcwilliams | 8 January 2002 | 2002 | Days Of Pearly Spencer | 1366 → 1778 | −412 |
| Timi Yuro | 30 March 2004 | 2004 | Hurt | 1077 → 1474 | −397 |
| Toon Hermans | 22 April 2000 | 2000 | 24 Rozen | 752 → 1086 | −334 |
| Long John Baldry | 21 July 2005 | 2005 | (Walk Me Out) In The Morning Dew | 1042 → 1273 | −231 |
| Benny Neyman | 7 February 2008 | 2008 | Waarom Fluister Ik Je Naam Nog | 384 → 531 | −147 |
| Ray Charles | 10 June 2004 | 2004 | Georgia On My Mind | 950 → 1102 | −74 |
| Barry Ryan | 28 September 2021 | 2021 | Eloise | 1321 → 1340 | −19 |
| John Miles | 5 December 2021 | 2021 | Music | 236 → 236 | +0 |
| Melanie | 23 January 2024 | 2024 | Beautiful People | 1358 → 1358 | +0 |
Copyright and royalties
Copyright lasts until 70 years after the year of the creator's death. The income (royalties) from record sales and streaming goes to the heirs or the rights holder, according to the will or statutory inheritance. A death therefore often brings more attention and more plays, and that income no longer goes to the artist. The recording itself is covered by separate performer and record label rights, which in Europe run for 70 years after release.
How we count this
The average rise is the average of all the artist's songs that were in the list both in the previous year and in the year of death. A positive number means the songs went up on average. This shows a link and does not prove a cause: the edition itself (a good year for a certain genre) can also play a part. See also After the last note.
Source: own calculation based on the Top 2000 database (NPO Radio 2 charts 1999 to 2025, Top 2000 Database by Erwin Groenhof), supplemented with MusicBrainz and Wikidata.